Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett, DBE (née Rowland; 4 May 1851 – 10 June 1936) was an English social reformer, educationist, and author.

She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first "University Settlement" at Toynbee Hall (in the East End of London) in 1884.

[2][3] At age 16, Henrietta was sent to a boarding school in Devon run by the Haddon sisters, who, influenced by James Hinton,[1] were committed to social altruism.

When her father died in 1869, Henrietta moved with two sisters to Bayswater, where she met and helped social activist and housing reformer Octavia Hill.

[3] Hill introduced Henrietta to the writings of John Ruskin, as well as many influential people similarly interested in improving the condition of London's poor.

[5] Henrietta Barnett promoted Homes for Workhouse Girls starting in 1880, and founded the London Pupil Teachers Association in 1891.

With Kathleen Mallam, Henrietta Barnett also edited a collection of essays entitled Destitute, Neglected, and Delinquent Children (Pan-Anglican papers, 1908).

For the final dozen years of her life, Henrietta Barnett took up painting and often lived at 45 Wish Road, Hove (today marked by a blue plaque).

She died at Hampstead in 1936 (aged 85) and is buried (with Samuel) in the churchyard of St Helen's Church, Hangleton, East Sussex.